Secretary-general of Fatah's revolutionary council Amin Maqboul has revealed current efforts to launch fresh rounds of peace talks between the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Israel.

In press remarks to the Palestinian Information Center (PIC) on Tuesday, Maqboul said that the PA made demands for the success of these efforts, including the release of the fourth batch of Palestinian prisoners as part of a previous deal with the Israeli side.

He added that the PA also demands a halt to all settlement activities and Israeli respect for all UN resolutions related to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. He pointed out that these efforts are being made by some Arab and international parties.

Recently, several news agencies talked about Russian efforts to convince Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu to meet with PA president Mahmoud Abbas in order to activate the stalled peace process.

Palestinian detainee Raed Mohammad al-Saadi entered his 28th year in Israeli custody on Sunday, making him one of a number of Palestinians currently detained the longest by Israel.

Al-Saadi, a 49-year-old native of the village of Silat al-Harithiya, in the northern occupied West Bank district of Jenin, was detained on Aug. 28, 1989, according to Ma’an News Agency.

He was sentenced to two life sentences in prison for carrying out attacks during the First Intifada which led to the deaths of Israeli soldiers and settlers.

Al-Saadi is the longest held Palestinian prisoner from the Jenin district. He was supposed to be released as part of a prisoner swap deal in conjunction with US-mediated peace talks with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in 2014, along with a number of fellow Palestinian prisoners held since before the 1993 Oslo Accords.

However, the deal was later suspended following the disappearance of three Israeli teenagers in June, which led to a crackdown in the occupied West Bank and a devastating Israeli offensive in the besieged Gaza Strip.

A massive arrest campaign allegedly targeting Hamas affiliates, who were unsubstantially implicated in the crime, was launched. Yet, no evidence to support the claim was ever produced.

According to Palestinian prisoners rights group Addameer, 7,000 Palestinians were detained by Israel as of July, 458 of whom were serving life sentences.

Al-Saadi is one of 30 prisoners detained since before the Oslo Accords, with 15 Palestinians serving more than 25 years in Israeli prisons.

A former Palestinian prisoner who served 19 years in Israeli custody died on Tuesday after a painful struggle with muscular dystrophy, the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society said.

In a statement, the group said Naim Shawamrah, 46, died at al-Ahli hospital in Hebron.

Shawamrah, a resident of the village of Dura south of Hebron, was released in early 2014 as part of an agreement with Israel in conjunction with US-mediated peace talks with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).

Shawamrah was one of some 104 Palestinian prisoners held since before the 1993 Oslo Accords to be released as part of the deal, which was later suspended following the disappearance of three Israeli teenagers in June, which led to a crackdown in the occupied West Bank and a devastating Israeli offensive in the besieged Gaza Strip.

Former Palestinian prisoner Naim Shawamreh, who developed muscular dystrophy while serving his sentence in Israeli jails, has succumbed to his illness three years after he was released.

The Prisoners’ and Ex-Prisoners’ Committee said Shawamreh’s death was the result of Israeli medical negligence in prison. The committee’s director Issa Qaraqe urged the international community to seriously work on halting such preplanned Israeli crimes against Palestinian detainees.

“Israel’s murder policies have reached intolerable levels in prisons, where illnesses have swiftly spread among the detainees,” he said. “We’ve frequently encountered detainees who spend the last days of their lives in hospitals without returning to their homes.”

Qaraqe called for the need to file a lawsuit with the International Criminal Court at the soonest time possible so as to impeach Israeli criminals for their crimes against the Palestinian people.

The Center for the Defense of Freedoms and Civil Rights (Hurriyat) held the Israeli occupation government, prison service, and medics accountable for the death of Shawamreh.

A statement by Hurriyat said Shawamreh’s death sounds the alarm over the death risks run by sick detainees in Israeli lock-ups. Naim Shawamreh, 46, was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1995.

He was released in 2013 after serving nearly 19 years in prison, following negotiations.

Meanwhile, European MPs joined a rally staged by dozens of Palestinian protesters and activists in Ramallah city, holding the Israeli occupation authorities responsible for Shawamreh’s death. Former Greek MP Zoe Konstantopoulou said she will work, along with her Irish and Icelandic fellows, to transmit the true tragedy endured by the Palestinians to their countries.

She added that contacts have been underway to mobilize solidarity with the Palestinian detainees. “Naim died as a result of the deliberate medical negligence in Israeli prisons,” a rally-goer said. “He would not have got to this point if he had been taken care of. The protesters further expressed their support for prisoner Bilal Kayed, on hunger strike for the 68th consecutive day in protest at being held administratively, without trial, in Israeli jails.

Israeli soldiers kidnapped, on Wednesday at night, the son of former political prisoner, Ibrahim Salah, in al-Khader town, south of Bethlehem, and his brother, and handed his other brother an order for interrogation.

Several Israeli military vehicles invaded the town, and surrounded the home of former political prisoner Ibrahim Salah, 55, after kidnapping him in Jerusalem, allegedly after he stabbed a soldier in Bab al-‘Amoud, in Jerusalem.

The soldiers kidnapped Khaled Ibrahim Salah, 25 years of age, and his uncle Mohammad Khalil, 63, and handed Taher Salah a warrant for interrogation at the Etzion military base, south of Bethlehem.

It is worth mentioning that the army have kidnapped 32 Palestinians, in different parts of the occupied West Bank Wednesday.

Suspect previously imprisoned, released for murdering Jews; security forces overpower Palestinian attacker, who lightly wounded guard by stabbing him in the leg in Jerusalem's Old City. A Palestinian attempted to attack a group of border guards near Damascus Gate in Jerusalem on Wednesday evening.

The guards managed to overpower the Palestinian, who managed to stab one of them in the leg, wounding him lightly. The suspect was arrested. The wounded guard was taken by ambulance to Hadassah Medical Center. The suspect in the attack is a 56-year-old resident of Hebron, who does not have a permit to enter Israel and was previously incarcerated for murdering a Jew in Jerusalem, and was released in 2013 as part of the third round of Palestinian prisoner releases.Stabbing attacks have been on the rise in Israel for many months. On August 17, a Palestinian was shot dead while attempting a knife attack at Tapuach Junction in the West Bank, while on August 15, two different stabbings occurred in the West Bank. In June, a border guard was stabbed at the same location, while the site saw clashes in May ahead of Jerusalem Day. Israeli soldier slightly injured in Jerusalem stabbing attack

An Israeli soldier was injured on Wednesday evening after being stabbed by a Palestinian man near the Damascus gate in Occupied Jerusalem.

Hebrew sources said that Israeli forces arrested the Palestinian who has not been identified yet.

The electronic website of Maariv Hebrew newspaper reported that the stabber shouted at Israeli border guard soldiers while carrying a sharp tool before attacking them. The soldiers were able to control the Palestinian man who injured one soldier in his foot.